Hearty Cook-With-What-You-Have Salad with Beans

From Katherine Deumling of Cook With What You Have

I am a bit of a bean evangelist (delicious, inexpensive, shelf stable, etc.) I love adding whatever cooked beans I have in the fridge to salads made of whatever I happened to have around. This is my favorite lunch or quick addition to dinner. This is less of a recipe and more of a general guide for you to use with what you have on hand and your tastes. You can use most any kind of bean and any salad green or tender, raw kale.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked, cooled beans (chickpeas, black beans, pinto or white beans or lentils—see bean cooking instructions below), well-drained
• 4 cups chopped lettuce(you don’t want huge pieces of lettuce so chop it a bit smaller than you might normally and that way the beans and all the other treats in this salad don’t fall to the bottom as readily)
• 2 tablespoons very thinly sliced red onion
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped green garlicor a bit of minced regular, mature garlic
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• About a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar (red wine, champagne and sherry vinegar are my favorites)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1-2 hardboiled eggs, roughly chopped (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoons toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds

Directions

Put beans and lettuce in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix garlic, lemon juice (or vinegar), salt, pepper, honey and olive oil. Toss everything together well. Taste and adjust seasoning and then gently toss in egg and seeds, if using. Serves 2-4 depending on whether it’s a side or main dish and of course how hungry you are. I can easily eat half this salad myself.

Basic Dry Bean Soaking/Cooking Instructions

If you aren’t in the habit of soaking and cooking dry beans here are the basic steps. The flavor of the beans is very good this way and they are much, much cheaper than cans. Once in the habit, it’s not much work at all. And I always soak and cook more than I need for any given recipe and freeze the rest in some of the cooking liquid. I also rarely cook beans for use in the moment. They improve so much if you can let them sit in their cooking liquid for an hour or so, or up to 8 hours. I usually cook them while I’m doing something else in the kitchen and then have them on hand for the next few days and/or freeze them for later use. 

3-4 cups dried beans (garbanzo, white, black, pinto. . . ) Rinse beans if they look dusty and pick out any stones. Usually I don’t find anything like that. Place in a large bowl covered by about 4 inches of cold water. Soak over night or 6-8 hours. Drain and rinse beans.

Place soaked beans in a large pot and cover with cold water by several inches. Add a few whole, peeled garlic cloves, a bay leaf and a big chunk of peeled onion. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and let cook covered until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally (this helps prevent some beans from softening before others.) If your beans are old (hard to tell!) salting them at the beginning can prevent them from cooking properly, so salt mid-way through or at the end. When you do add salt, be generous, as in at least 3 teaspoons kosher salt to start if you’re cooking 4 cups or so of dried beans. They’ll probably need more still. The time it takes for the beans to cook will vary depending on the kind of bean and the freshness of the dried beans. Garbanzos take the longest, usually about 45 minutes.  Black, white and pinto can be done in 20-40 minutes. Let beans cool in their liquid (if you’re not in a rush) and then use, freeze, etc. If you’re freezing some, fill your container with the beans and then ladle in the cooking liquid until the beans are almost covered. Cooked beans also keep in the fridge for 5-6 days and for several months in the freezer.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Feta

Not really a recipe but a wonderful combo

Cut tomatoes and lemon cukes into medium to large dice or wedges. Add a generous amount of the best feta you can find. Dress with the best olive oil you have, some red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. A generous sprinkling of chopped chives will round it out. You can also add chopped lettuce and chopped black olives for a complete Greek salad (and basil in that case too!).

Roasted Beets and Walnut Salad

by Katherine Deumling of Cook With What You Have

Beets take a while to cook and a little goes a long way with beets. I tend to roast all the beets I have at once and then use a bit here and there in different preparations the following days. I like the flavor of roasted beets best though boiled is quicker and good too.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

1 bunch beets, trimmed of beat greens and scrubbed but not peeled. If they’re large I cut the beets in halves or quarters.

Place the beets in a large sheet of aluminum foil. Sprinkle with a little water and then fold the foil over and tuck it into itself to create a nicely sealed package. Place packet on a sheet pan in the hot oven. Roast for about 45 minutes (depending on size of your chunks of beet).  A tester should easily pierce the beet.

 Remove from oven, open package and let cool until you can handle them. Now the skin will come off easily. Peel beets. If you’d like toss them when still warm with a little red wine or sherry vinegar and a bit of salt. Beets do well with a little acidity and if you toss them in oil first the vinegar won’t get absorbed.

Now you can add them to salads or dishes of many kinds.

Beet and Walnut Salad

This is a classic combination and deservedly so. 

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar
• 3-4 tablespoons walnut or good olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bunch beets, trimmed and roasted (see above), cooled and cubed
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts, broken up
• 2-3 cups fairly finely torn lettuce (optional)
• 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

Mix everything, except the cheese, together well, adding the lettuce at the very end, if using. Sprinkle with the blue cheese and serve.